Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as an ábhar tábhachtach seo a chur ar an gclár oibre. It gives me the opportunity to update the House on the current position regarding the new building project for Kilsheelan National School, County Tipperary. It is a co-educational primary school and enrolment for the school in September 2022 was 96 pupils, of whom 56 were boys and 40 were girls.

I am pleased to advise the House, as the Senator has acknowledged, that approval was granted to the school authority for funding under the additional school accommodation scheme to build two mainstream classrooms with a user-assisted toilet and one special education teacher room. The project is devolved to the school authority for delivery. The school appointed a design team to progress the project through the various stages of architectural design and delivery. The Department approved the school authority to tender for the delivery of the project in the second quarter of 2022. The school authority must now submit an architectural stage 3 tender report in line with the Department’s requirements for approval to start construction. The Senator has referenced where the project is at. Officials in my Department were told by the principal what the Senator has told the House, that is, the project has recently been put out for tender. Once the stage 3 tender report has been received by the Department, it will be reviewed by officials and the school will be contacted directly. That is the procedure these matters must go through but I appreciate the urgency of the situation the Senator has outlined well.